Clam flipping over?

S

satyra

I posted this on the facebook group for this website, but ill post here as well. Hopefully this post isnt too long... THis little guy has been in my tank for a week or two, did fine for the first few days, except maybe looking a little stressed (a little gaping maybe), but i didnt worry cause he was new. the mantle has always been almost fully extended, and he is always very reactive to changes in light or fish or something moving too close to him, and he closes up real quick, then comes back out after a few seconds. when we first got him, we put him on a piece of live rock i thought he would like, it had a little "valley" shape in it that was just about the size he is, or a little bigger so he could sit in there and be cradled a little bit. a few days ago, he started moving around and he was flipping himself on his side. so i put a clean piece of small tile on the ground, put some substrate on top of it, then put him on top of that. hes still flipping himself on his side. ill try to cradle him with some more substrate or some small chunks or rock or something after i get off the computer. If hes not happy in that spot i dont wanna force him to stay there though. [smilie=sadsmile.gif] flow around the clam is pretty good, i have added mostly sps frags with a few random others so the flow is good, but the clam is in a lower flow area. i can see its mantle move a little bit in the flow. I recently upgraded the lighting on this tank as well, went to the "sps grade" luxeon led kit from steves leds. the rest of the corals look good, no signs of bleaching on the clam, nor is he getting brown-out spots, color looks the same as when i bought him. not sure the exact params of the lfs i got him from, but he was there for at least 2 weeks before i bought him.

heres the tank params:

ph - 8.1
ammonia, nitrite - 0
phos, nitrate - unreadable (they have never been unreadable in this tank, never, lol. too low maybe? the corals dont look nearly as happy now as they did with readable nirates and phos)
alk - 8
cal - 420
mg - ~1250-1300

Heres some info on this tank before i got the clam, in case it helps. ive only killed one coral and dont wanna kill anything else if its something im doing lol. I had a leak recently in my algae trough-turned-fuge, so it was not running for a few weeks (long before i got this clam). finally got the husband to fix it about 4 weeks ago and the chaeto/calurpa in there is coming back and growing well again. before the fuge sprung a leak, i had been experimenting with skimmerless, and the tank was doing GREAT, even with all the fish food being fed, all the corals had nice PE and were growing well. i had a little bit of red slime pop up after the fuge got shut off, which i have been using lanthanum chloride to get rid of. during the time it was broken, and up to now, ive been heavily skimming for nitrates, and using the lanth. chloride for the phosphates. i think i read someone saying that lanth. chloride made the clams retract their mantles a little bit, but no other ill effects, maybe thats it? I have a few various leather corals in this tank, chemicals making the clam angry? maybe hes not getting enough food and hes hungry? We just dropped a bag of carbon in the sump to see if it helps. im kinda at a loss here....here is a (terrible) pic of him:

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I have always used seashells to put underneath the clam, usually the cup of the shell will hold the clam upright long enough for it to attach.
 
Sounds light the clam is reacting to too much light. Try a slightly shaded area as well or dim the led's then gradually acclimate yor tanks critter to the higher light level's. I also could be totally incorrect. [smilie=rofl.gif]

Cheers,
 
Hmm. I don't remember what type of lighting, or strength, it was at the fish store, but I know that tank was open and shallow. I assumed it was used to lots of light :/ I'm pretty sure it was metal halide, do the clams go through a phase like the sps do when they go from mh to leds? My sps will usually brown out a little for a few weeks then regain all the color, although some of them don't change at all. My lights are all dimmable, with moonlights. In the morning the moonlights shut off, the whites are dimmed down to about half power, the blues are on full power all day. I turn the whites on full power for about 5-7 hours a day, then put them back at half power for a few hours, then shut them off, moonlights come on, then repeat the cycle the next day.


I think I have an old clam shell that came with a bunch of rubble, if I can find it I will definitely try that instead of the tile. I'll also dim down all the lights and hope that's what he's mad about. Thank you very much for the suggestions :) if theres any more ideas for this clam newb feel free to share :)
 
I am not saying this is what is happening with yours, but both of my clams flipped over and essentially died in a matter of a month. I still don't know what happened.
 
a clam that is on the move is typically not a happy clam.

I would put it up as far on a rock or in a clam shell as possible getting it as much light as possible.

keep an eye out for a flatworm as well... there are large flatworms that are transparent and colored just like the clams that sometimes slip into our systems. If you can, add some rough substrate like rubble under the clam in the shell. Large frag plugs also work.....this will give it something to hold onto and also some protection on its underside as thats were crabs and other critters will often cause problems for them.

also check the base and around the underside of the mantle for pyramid snails.. they are small white cone shaped snails about the side of a grain of rice....
 
Yesterday I found an old clam shell and put it under him, then pushed some substrate around his base. I dimmed all my lights down too. Since then he has not tried to move, but I guess time will tell. His mantle is slightly pulled in though, hopefully its cause of the dimmed lights and not pinched mantle syndrome....

In case he does have flat worms, will a fw dip eradicate them? I have some flat worn exit as well if a fw dip won't work, which would be less stressful? Should I go ahead and dip him to be safe?
 
@satyra wrote:
Yesterday I found an old clam shell and put it under him said:
you do not want to dim the lights.. clams need lots of light. FW for clams is hard on them and not recommended no. you could try a heavy dose of fw exit in a container with tank water tho... not sure if that stuff will work on those flat worms or not.
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Will their mantle turn white if they're getting too much light? And brown out if they're not getting enough? I just turned them up a little but not to full power. I'll try to find info on clam flatworms on google. Don't wrasses like to eat stuff like that (flatworms), I have a hungry sixline in there....I'd love to put him on the rockwork but not if he's gonna jump off :(
 
@satyra wrote:
Will their mantle turn white if they're getting too much light? And brown out if they're not getting enough? I just turned them up a little but not to full power. I'll try to find info on clam flatworms on google. Don't wrasses like to eat stuff like that (flatworms) said:
a clam really cant have too much light, they exist in shallows in the wild. the flatworms are large about 1-4 inches... but are rare so its just something to look for not to focus on. a wrasse may or may not eat it, thats kind of large for them to eat.
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Thats what i was thinking, as far as light, even though he did respond favorably(?) to the dimming. he put his mantle out more after i turned them up. maybe he just wanted something better to grab onto. i picked him up just now to check him for parasites, and he has already attatched to the little shell i put under him :) i looked up pics of clam flatworms and pyramid snails, didnt see anything, or any jelly like substance that looked like eggs on or around the mantle, or outside of his shell. i cannot see his underside anymore since hes attatched, but hopefully they arent hiding down there. ill try again after we have the lights turned off for a while. hopefully he was just stressed from the move and not having something favorable to grab on to.
 
@echristiansen08 wrote:
[I]@lanespd200 wrote:[/I][quote="I am not saying this is what is happening with yours said:
+1"]

Same here, I accidentally tore the byssal threads when I moved mine and the same thing happened with mine as far as flipping on it's side.
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how would you know if the threads were torn? i didnt see the guy at the lfs when he got him out of the tank, but he seems like a real knowledgable guy, has a good rep in the area. when i had the bag floating in my tank, the clam was sticking out his "foot" trying to grab on, it looked smooth and rounded at the tip.
 
I honestly don't know the answer to that but the reason I know for my experience is I had a frag fall into the clam's mantle. When I tried to pull it out with tongs, the shell closed around the frag when I was lifting and I pulled the clam. It opened for about 3 weeks before it died. It stayed open but kept flipping on its side no matter what I did. You could be a different story. Maybe the light is too much.
 
Ahhh, ouch! I wonder if the other frag poisoned it if it let off some slime or something inside the clam.

So far so good, hasnt been moving anymore. i hope it stays that way! its a stunning clam, gold on the inner mantle with lots of speckles and tear shapes. if you look at it from the side the outer rim is dark blue, if you look at it from the top, its green. if this clam lives ill definitely be getting more!
 
Well, the little guy moved off of the shell the other day. Its been in the same spot right next to the shell ever since. Its sitting at a 45° angle lol. Its keeping its mantle out and whats making me worry about it less is that it didnt look like its gaping nearly as much :) just maybe it will live I hope! I'll gradually increase the lighting to normal high levels over the next few weeks and see how it does. Thanks for all the suggestions!
 
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